I cannot function without a good night’s sleep. Or, rather, I can function, but I’ll feel awful, like I’m moving through sludge.
Most nights, I sleep uninterrupted and feel refreshed in the morning, although it depends on the more-often-than-I-would-like trips to the bathroom at some point around 4:00 or 5:00—a matter of age, and if I drank too much fluid in the evening.
How I feel in the morning also depends on whether an alarm wakes me in the middle of a dream. If that’s the case, it will take me longer to orient myself and get going (which is a long process, anyway, given hand-care and eye care and stretching exercises and the time it takes to get dressed). It also depends on how weird the dream is. And I have weird dreams.
I wake up most refreshed without an alarm, when daylight filters through the bedroom shades. That’s how we’re supposed to be, I suppose. Given that I’m an owl, not a lark, I often don’t get to sleep before midnight. Daylight around 7:00 arrives at just the right time for a seven-hour night. That’s also when the heat comes up in our home, which at this time of year is essential for me to get myself out of bed.
There’s plenty of research that explains why sleep is so important to each of us—for physical and mental well-being, absorbing and processing new information, retaining memory, paying attention. Especially for those of us living with chronic medical conditions, sleep is essential for healing and staying as healthy as possible.
There’s also plenty of good advice about sleep hygiene, how to create the conditions to help you get a good night’s sleep. For me, most nights, getting to sleep is not a problem, so long as I haven’t eaten too close to bedtime, have turned off the news before I’m ready to turn in (absolute necessity), and have a good book to read until I start yawning so much I can’t read anymore. Getting to sleep is easiest if I’ve exercised during the day, especially walking outside in fresh air.
On those nights when sleep eludes me, or I can’t get back to sleep after an interruption, I’ll start ruminating. Listening to a meditation sleep-cast usually, but not always, does the trick. But even if I can’t go back to sleep, I try to stay in bed and count backwards from 100 or try to recall all the state capitals, just to rest my joints if not my brain.
And if all else fails, and I’m dragging during the day (more true in cold weather, which makes me want to hibernate), I’ll lie down and take a 20-minute rest or power nap to rejuvinate. This is most likely to happen around 2:30 in the afternoon, the low point in my daytime circadian cycle.
When I do need that break, I am very grateful that I work for myself at home.
And so, Dear Reader, here’s to a good night’s sleep on a regular basis for us all. Be well.
Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.
Image: Cris Sauer
I currently practice pretty much all of the tips you posted on good sleep habits. In general, I am mindful of maintaining many good habits for over-all health. But in spite of all this, I often do not sleep well, and when I don’t, I feel sludge-y too. A “good” night = sleep 11:30-3:30, brief wake-up/bathroom trip, sleep 3:45-6:45. Achieved maybe half the time. I almost always fall asleep quickly at first, but often do not get back to sleep easily after waking in the wee hours. I’ve heard that this wakeful period called “dorveille” used to be a normal part of everyone’s sleep cycle, so maybe it shouldn’t bug me. I sometimes think I fail to fall back to sleep because I am annoyed at being awake!
I hear you!